After the harrowing challenge at the end of the last chapter, I’ve kept playing this amazing game. This week I played through the third chapter, discovering both the next chapter in the story, and the interesting ways in which the game utilises its core mechanic.
Spoiler Warning
This article will spoil the entirety of Life is Strange: Chapter 3. If you haven’t played it yet, and don’t want to find out what happens then you can read something else instead.
In previous chapters, this game has explored interesting ways in which the core mechanic can be applied. By this point I’m getting used to being able to rewind and change my choices, and I’ve noticed how it makes me think harder about the decisions I make. I’ll linger for a short while in an area because I know that when I leave I won’t be able to change my mind. I’ll rewind and make a different choice. Sometimes I’d rewind again and make my original choice.
The game also gives you some new sequences that force you to use the rewind power in interesting ways. In an early part of this chapter you break into the Principal’s office with Chloe, setting off the alarm. It took me a while to figure out what to do, but it was as simple as reversing time while you are still standing in the office. The alarm resets, the door locks itself again, but you are still inside the office.
Later there is a sequence where you need to hide from security guards. You can avoid them by watching their torchlights, but if you get caught you can just rewind again. You can memorise their movements and make sure you are hidden from them as they move through the area. What sets this apart from other stealth games with similar mechanics is that it makes sense in the story itself. Max is literally reversing time and avoiding the guards.
Complementing the gameplay, the story is getting more interesting. This chapter focuses on Max and Chloe trying to find out what happened to the missing Rachel. They spend a lot of time together and you have many run-ins with her abusive stepdad. As the chapter goes on, Chloe spirals out of control, eventually breaking down because she sometimes blames herself, sometime blames her mother, even blames her father for his untimely death. It’s heart-breaking to see her lash out and leave Max, the one who talked Kate down from the roof, at a loss for words.
Then Max starts to learn something about her powers. She looks at a picture of her and Chloe playing at Chloe’s house the day her father died. Suddenly she’s inside the picture. She’s 13 again, and the camera clicks as Chloe’s father takes the photo. The scene plays out and he gets a call from Chloe’s mother to come pick her up from the store. That’s when Max realises something. That’s when you realise something.
You can save him.
Max reverses time and hides the keys to his car. Unable to find them, Chloe’s father resorts to taking the bus. Suddenly you are back in the present. You are in a circle with the popular girls at the university. You’re one of them, in fact. Everything is the same, but also everything is different. Of course, Max has only one thing on her mind.
She runs to Chloe’s house and knocks on the door. Her father, her real father, answers. It worked. Max changed the past. Chloe’s father is alive. Then Chloe comes to the door and Max realises she’s made a terrible mistake.
